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The world is full of unsolved problems. It is also full of problems for which solutions already exist, if we only leverage them. When we slow down for a minute, consider the available options, and more carefully assess the consequences of various modes of action, we have a better chance of directing our efforts where they ought to go–for the good of ourselves and the issues we face.

Matthew Cohen ’18 and Johnathan Bowes ’15 debate whether Puerto Rico should become the 51st state in the United States. Cohen urges us to question the previous votes in Puerto Rico as well as its tremendous debt while Bowes argues the US should respect the will of Puerto Ricans in whatever they choose.

Stanford leads web movement

Stanford’s undergraduate price tag may have just gone up, but for the casual physics learner, the University is still a top destination for free online educational content.

Standing in stark contrast to rising tuition costs, a growing number of American universities are providing free online courses to the general public and, by the numbers, Stanford appears to be at the forefront.

With a total of 2,872 tracks on iTunes and 868 videos on YouTube, Stanford averages 219,000 downloads per week on iTunes U and 114,000 views per week on YouTube, according to University communications staff.

The University currently offers 73 courses on iTunes U. YouTube EDU provides a subset of 53 courses from the iTunes U site. According to Dan Colman, the director of Continuing Studies, 17 of the iTunes courses are from the Continuing Studies Program.

It all began with the Apple Digital Campus Initiative in 2005, said Scott Stocker, Stanford’s director of Web communications. The initiative led to the genesis of Stanford’s public iTunes U site, the first of its kind.

“The idea began as a way for faculty to use iTunes, kind of in tandem with Coursework . . . to distribute audio recordings of courses,” Stocker said. “Through that project, we actually brought up the idea that iTunes would make a great platform for distributing recorded materials to the public. That’s really where iTunes U began.”

In the years that followed, Stocker and his affiliates at the Office of University Communications formed a lasting partnership with the Continuing Studies Program, which has been an important provider of online content for the University’s iTunes U and YouTube EDU platforms.

Today, one explanation for the popularity of these online courses is their broad appeal.

“My program, Continuing Studies, presents courses that are interesting to the larger public,” Colman said. “These courses were kind of a logical fit for what they were trying to do.”

Colman said that Stanford’s ability to record lectures and disseminate them online fulfills the University’s mission of making education accessible to the larger public.

“Anytime that we can give people access to important information, regardless of where they live in the world or whether they have money or not, I think it’s a valuable thing to do,” Colman emphasized.

“For example, we taped a six-quarter sequence tracing the whole arc of modern physics, and it’s a very popular course,” he added. “It’s presented by a very important physicist at the University.”

That physicist is Leonard Susskind, the Felix Bloch professor in physics.

“It seemed to me that there was a need for somebody to teach things like physics to a broader audience outside the Stanford student audience, and I decided to try teaching a continuing studies course,” Susskind said about his motivation.

“I get a fantastic amount of e-mail, much more e-mail than I can possibly answer,” he explained. “Some it comes from within the United Sates. I would say the majority of it comes from all over the world . . . a lot of it comes from India, from Pakistan, from Iran, from South America, from all over Asia.”

Given the huge success of his physics series, Susskind anticipates that he will continue providing lectures for the Continuing Studies Program and the University’s online platforms.

“I’ll continue it for a while,” he said. “I enjoy it — it’s a lot of fun.”

Stocker asserted that there are many pedagogical reasons for making course content available online. He noted that this option enables students to “review and augment what they’re learning in class.”

“But our primary focus is making a sampling of the courses available to the general public . . . We want to showcase the best of teaching and research on campus,” he added.

In addition to reaching interested scholars, these online classes attract the attention of prospective students and help alums reconnect with the University.

“The original iTunes U project was also a partnership with the Alumni Association and we’ve always seen that the alumni [are] one of the largest audiences for this material,” Stocked said.

Individual departments currently are responsible for selecting lectures to record, but Stocker maintained that his office is always on the lookout for new material to post on the Web.

“We’re always looking for new content, so if people have good suggestions for content they’d like to see on the site, [they should] feel free to contact our office,” Stocker said.

To suggest courses, please visit the Web site http://ucomm.stanford.edu/contribute.

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Carrying forward the interest in contemplation both at Windhover and during Contemplation by Design week, the Office for Religious life and HIP are collaborating to offer a labyrinth walking fundamentals [...]

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Carrying forward the interest in contemplation both at Windhover and during Contemplation by Design week, the Office for Religious life and HIP are collaborating to offer a labyrinth walking fundamentals workshop. This 2-session program will provide you with knowledge of the rich history and stress reduction and resilience-building benefits of the contemplative practice of labyrinth walking. Each session will begin in the classroom followed by a practicum of walking the Windhover labyrinth. Class will be held rain or shine. Please dress accordingly. Please note: registration required for this free class.

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COMFORT WOMEN WANTED brings to light the memory of 200,000 young women, referred to as “comfort women,” who were systematically exploited as sex slaves in Asia during World War II, and increases awareness of sexual violence against women during wartime. It is based on interviews with Korean, Chinese, Taiwanese, Indonesian, Filipino, and Dutch “comfort women” survivors and a former Japanese soldier from WWII conducted by the filmmaker, Chang-Jin Lee, a Korean-born visual artist from New York City.

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We are a social action VSO and bake challah bread on Thursdays at Hillel in the back building (across from the Haas Center). The proceeds this week go to MAZON: [...]

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We are a social action VSO and bake challah bread on Thursdays at Hillel in the back building (across from the Haas Center). The proceeds this week go to MAZON: a national non-profit working to end hunger among all faiths and backgrounds. We work with a variety of groups around campus, including social action groups, interfaith groups, and Greek life. Everyone is welcome to come join us in making challah.

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The Stanford Institute for Theoretical Physics announces the second mini-course by Stanford physics faculty on recent fundamental advances in theoretical physics. The winter quarter's lectures will be by Professor Sean [...]

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The Stanford Institute for Theoretical Physics announces the second mini-course by Stanford physics faculty on recent fundamental advances in theoretical physics. The winter quarter’s lectures will be by Professor Sean Hartnoll.

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THE LADY ONSTAGE explores the life and work of Olga Knipper, a name unfamiliar to most, but perhaps best known as “Chekhov’s wife”. Olga was a key creative genius in [...]

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THE LADY ONSTAGE explores the life and work of Olga Knipper, a name unfamiliar to most, but perhaps best known as “Chekhov’s wife”. Olga was a key creative genius in the history of modern theatre; she was not only the originator of the leading female roles in Chekhov’s four major plays, but also became the de facto chief representative of the Moscow Art Theater when they toured the United States. THE LADY ONSTAGE takes us into the psyche of an actress at the moment when theater changed forever, giving us an inside perspective on the radical choices artists make in the name of Art and Love.

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